In this file photo, 5th District Judge Michael Westfall (background) hears from defense counsel Gary Pendleton (foreground) during the Brandon Perry Smith trial in early 2017. Smith was found guilty by a jury in the Dec. 11, 2010, murder of 20-year-old Jerrica Christensen, St. George, Utah, Feb. 3, 2017 | Photo by Kevin Jenkins via Utah court pool, St. George News

ST. GEORGE – The defense in the ongoing Brandon Smith trial experienced increasing frustration Friday as evidence they hoped to submit in court was denied. This resulted in Smith’s attorneys summoning the co-defendant in the 2010 double-murder case whom one of the attorneys referred to as “the devil himself.”

Paul Clifford Ashton, 37, is currently serving a life sentence without possibility of parole for the murder of Brandie Jerden, 27, and the attempted murder of James Fiske in the December 2010 incident. The defense has long argued that he manipulated and intimidated Smith into killing 20-year-old Jerrica Christensen.

According to court documents and testimony, Ashton, who had been cooperating with police as an informant, feared he had been exposed and asked Smith to supply him with a gun for self defense. The same evening an argument between Jerden and Ashton resulted in Ashton shooting and killing Jerden and wounding Fiske. Fiske was able to escape and called police.

5th District Judge Michael Westfall continued to frustrate the defense during the Brandon Smith trial Friday by denying admittance of evidence the defense claims would aid in their building the case that Smith was manipulated by Paul Ashton into killing 20-year-old Jerrica Christensen on Dec. 11, 2010. This photo shows Westfall during the first day of testimony during the trial, St. George, Utah, Jan. 31, 2017 | Photo by Chris Caldwell via Utah court pool, St. George News

Christensen had locked herself in a bathroom in the back of the home and was found by Smith. He is accused of beating the woman with a blunt object, strangling her and slitting her throat with a pocket knife.

Ashton pleaded guilty to killing Jerden in July 2013. A month prior to that he also pleaded guilty in federal court to kidnapping and killing Bradley Eitner in October 2010. Eitner had been a homeless man staying at Ashton’s home and was passed out one evening. Ashton told authorities he beat Eitner and took him out to the Arizona Strip where he shot him and left his body.

Ashton is currently serving a life sentence plus 10 years for the Eitner murder.

The jury was kept out of the courtroom for part of the morning as attorneys Gary Pendleton and Mary Corporon argued for the submission of two items of potential evidence. They both said the items would help them further establish that Smith was manipulated by Ashton into killing Christensen.

Despite their efforts, Judge Michael Westfall ultimately ruled against the items being admitted as evidence.

Frustrated in demeanor and tone, the ruling led Pendleton to grab a prepared transfer order and declare, “We have no other option but to bring the devil here himself.”

Pendleton gave the court a transfer order requesting that Ashton be brought to the court to testify. Given he is serving two life sentences, it remains to be seen if Ashton will be cooperative as he appears to have little to gain or lose in this situation.

Friday was the first day the defense called witnesses; the prosecution rested its case Thursday.

Testimony was given regarding Smith’s nature as a relatively quiet individual who had trouble communicating with others while growing up. He also avoided conflict where possible, sometimes even physically hiding from it. Mention was also made of his having served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and being involved in an LDS congregation geared toward 20-something singles, popularly known at the time as “singles wards.”

Defense co-counsel Mary Corporon engages in a bout case law argument Friday with Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap (not photoed) as the two bat points of argument back and forth. At one point they were arguing conflicting points from the same case, St. George, Utah, Feb. 3, 2017 | Photo by Kevin Jenkins via Utah court pool, St. George News

At some point Smith evidently got Ashton involved in a singles ward for a time, according to previous testimony given in the court case.

Smith’s older sister, Katrina Smith, tearfully stated how her brother would help anyone out, even Ashton.

If someone was in need of help, whatever the circumstance, Smith would lend a helping hand, Katrina Smith said with emotion in her voice. He would help someone with a blown tire in the Virgin River Gorge or someone like Ashton, whom she implied took advantage of that fact.

According to testimony given throughout the court case, Ashton contacted Smith in the early hours of Dec. 11, 2010, and said he was afraid someone had discovered he had been a confidential informant for the police and was threatening him. In order to have a means of defending himself, he asked Smith to supply him with a gun.

Smith went to Ashton’s home and gave him a .357 magnum resolver, while Smith himself was armed with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun.

At the time, Jerden was moving the belongings of her and her boyfriend, Matthew McNee, out of Ashton’s home where they had rented a room. Fiske and Christensen, his girlfriend, were helping.

During an ill-tempered exchange with Pendleton, McNee said he didn’t know Smith and didn’t care to. As far as McNee was concerned, Smith was stealing his air, he said.

McNee testified that renting the room was the “biggest mistake” he had ever made, and that the reason for the move was due to learning Ashton “wasn’t who he said he was.” Jerden had learned through a third party that Ashton was a police informant, which enraged McNee at the time. If Jerden and a friend hadn’t convinced him otherwise, he said, he would have gone to Ashton’s home and “stomped a hole in him.”

County Attorney Brock Belnap during the opening statements of the Brandon Perry Smith Trial, St. George, Jan. 31, 2017 | Photo by Chris Caldwell via the Utah court pool, St. George News

Instead, he stayed behind while Jerden, Fiske and Christensen went to Ashton’s condominium and started moving stuff out.

As has been previous established, an argument broke out between Ashton and Jerden over a missing bicycle. The argument became physical when Jerden smashed a toolkit of some sort against Ashton’s head, resulting in her and Fiske getting shot.

Fiske would manage to escape and call McNee and the police.

“We’ve been shot, everyone’s been shot,” Fiske told him over the phone, McNee said. McNee then got in a car and sped toward the scene and passed the very spot where police had stopped Ashton along the way.

Once at the scene of the murders, McNee said he was left dumbfounded.

“It hit me in the face with a bunch of emotions,” McNee said, adding that he held Jerden’s lifeless body in his arms before moving on to find Christensen.

McNee then found Fiske who was “bleeding out” from the gunshot wound in his shoulder, McNee said. He threw Fiske in the car and went back to where he had seen the cops earlier, finally seeing where Ashton had ended up as well.

Prior to beginning the day’s testimonies Friday, Westfall shot down two items that the defense said would help establish Ashton’s manipulative nature.

The first item consisted of some text messages Ashton had sent to Smith and an unknown party prior to the murders. The defense argued the texts show Ashton being manipulative. Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap argued they were not credible in this regard and Westfall agreed.

The second item was a conversation had between Smith and St. George Police Officer Thad Feltner while en route to the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility. By this time it had been nearly two-and-a-half hours since the conclusion of Smith’s interrogation at the St. George Police Department.

L-R: Murder suspect Brandon Smith and attorney Gary Pendleton listen to testimony Friday. Part of the testimony described Smith as being unusually quiet growing up and non-confrontational, even going as far as to physically hide from conflict at times, St. George, Utah, Feb. 3, 2017 | Photo by Kevin Jenkins via Utah court pool, St. George News

Feltner had asked Smith how he felt when he killed the 20-year-old Christensen and why he did it. According to Feltner’s report, Smith said he felt nothing yet feared that if he didn’t “complete the deed,” Smith would shoot him as he had Jerden and Fiske.

Smith’s attorney read his words as written in Feltner’s reports. “‘He just shot two people, so I thought maybe he’d shoot me,’” Corporon read. He also said the murder didn’t feel good to think or talk about, she said.

Corporon said the conversation gives insight into Smith’s state of mind following the murders and argued the conversation was an extension of the interrogation.

Belnap argued Smith’s statements were not a part of the official interrogation and were hearsay and therefore not admissible.

The state and the defense engaged in a bout of legal debate as case law was argued back and forth. Westfall ultimately called a recess to review case law related to the matter. After doing so, he again ruled in the state’s favor and shot down the defense’s efforts.

Despite Westfall’s ruling, the defense will have a second chance to argue for the statement’s admittance Monday thanks to Belnap’s reviewing details of the interrogation and the time leading up to Smith’s being taken to the county jail.

Belnap presented the court with those details following the lunch recess, leading to Westfall’s allowing the defense another attempt at changing his mind. Given Westfall’s tone at the time, he didn’t seem very thrilled at the prospect of hearing further argument regarding the matter.

While the defense continues its attempts to establish that Ashton manipulated Smith to the point of committing murder, prosecutors argue Smith’s violent actions toward Christensen were heartless and deliberate. Christensen’s bloody slaying is the result of Smith’s own choices and actions and not the product of Ashton’s playing the part of some deranged puppeteer, they argue.

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About the Author

Mori Kessler serves as a Senior Reporter for St. George News, having previously contributed as a writer and Interim Editor in 2011-12, and an assistant editor from 2012 to mid-2014. He began writing news as a freelancer in 2009 for Today in Dixie, and joined the writing staff of St. George News in mid-2010. He is also a shameless nerd and has a bad sense of direction, often telling people go left while he is pointing right. Numbers greater than five also confuse him.

4 Comments

First of all, he is not the devil himself and that attorney should be careful speaking like that. This guys a cold blooded murder but he’s not the anti Christ. Demon possession would be a better diagnosis. Oh yes! But that would get anyone who says that a 72 hour hold in the mental institution. Should I watch my back? Attorney dude, He was and still could be demon possessed but he is not the devil himself!